Decision support framework for the selection of ERP software for manufacturing companies

Abstract:

In Sri Lanka as well as in the world, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system implementations have been considerably increased, however, all the implementations are not success stories. Most of these post implementation problems are due to inappropriate selection of the systems.
This dissertation discusses and presents a decision support framework for the selection of ERP systems for manufacturing companies especially in Sri Lanka.
First, ERP evaluation criteria is developed using past literature and through a questionnaire distributed to Sri Lankan manufacturing companies. The main focus areas of Sri Lankan manufacturing industry, for the ERP system evaluation is identified through this questionnaire. However, the availability of related literature for the Sri Lanka industry is very limited and therefore the international experience is used through the literature.
Selection of the hest suited F.RP system leads to a multi-criteria decision making problem as there are many criteria to evaluate. One of the best suited methods to solve this kind of a problem is Analytic Hierarchy Proccss (AHP) and therefore the ERP selection framework is modeled using AHP. To be able to use this framework easily, the same framework is implemented using Exert Choice software which is just the software implementation of AHP.
To illustrate the importance and effectiveness of the model, it is implemented to a manufacturing company in Sri Lanka.